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Posts: 2047
Joined: Jul. 12 2004
From: San Francisco
guitar issues
I've got a guitar that has one of the pegs slipping. I can't seem to get it to stick. Can I just buy a random set, replace just the one, or do I need a specific type/size? Also the guitar is french polished and the finish is doing something weird in a few spots. It's a good quality handmade guitar. I'm thinking of selling it. I need the space....
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Pegs need a luither tune up every once in a while.
Doubt you need a new peg.
And because Ethan is a regular here on the Foro I’ll let him have his say before I add my two cents.
HR
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I prefer my flamenco guitar spicy, doesn't have to be fast, should have some meat on the bones, can be raw or well done, as long as it doesn't sound like it's turning green on an elevator floor.
That's weird, there were a bunch of replies that have disappeared.
I can attest to that.
The forum needs a serious plan. This kind of slow painful death with all sorts of issues (long term members not being able to log back, new members can't join since July 2025, posts deleted, etc.) is kind of a twilight zone with no future. I am sure people would still help out in whatever ways (financial or otherwise) to keep it running, but it needs some decisions and a future plan with possible migration, etc. I mean come on it is 2026. We should be able to somehow fix this together?
That was odd. Seems there must have been a back up restore that happened. I have noticed that there have not been a bunch of spam bots like there had been in a long time now.
Okay, here goes again. Mark, I'm sorry you're having trouble with Pegheds. You have the two E strings wound the wrong way. Changing that may solve your problem. Otherwise, you may have loosened one of them and they need to be screwed and glued in, and wound the right way to keep them in. Please see the photo below for instructions on what to do after you unscrew it all the way and take it out of the headstock. Regarding the shellac: I think that is due to wax in the shellac. Now I remove it by centrifugation to prevent that from happening. Not much can be done about it other than refinishing the guitar, which I don't recommend. Best wishes.
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Thanks Ethan! I've never owned a guitar with pegs until recently when I had Jason McGuire build me one. I was wondering why he had the strings wound the way he did :-) I'm left handed so I'm unable to play the guitar you built. I've kept it for friends to play but at this point I need the space. Glad to hear the finish issue is just cosmetic. FWIW my friend showed your guitar to Antonio Rey and he liked it. He made some positive comments about the sound.
If there isn't a guitar luthier familiar with pegs/mechanical pegs nearby, you could try a violin/classical luthier. I have had my real peg, and mechanical peghead guitars fixed by one, they are experts in pegs.
Haha, it’s amazing the things you don’t know until you do. 40 years ago I bought a Ramirez 1a Blanca and just switched the strings around. I still have it and it’s a great guitar. Play it regularly. I picked up a Yamaha 171 when they came out. Figured it might be a camping trip guitar. Turns out I don’t really like camping. But no issues switching the strings around. But not so with Ethan’s guitar. Turns out like a lot of builders he carves relief in the neck so when you switch the strings they don’t line up in the middle of the neck. The bigger issue is that lefties simply don’t have access to many guitars, so we don’t learn about the peculiarities of various instruments. That’s how I went forty plus years without learning how to wind the strings on a guitar with pegs. I’d imagine if I played right handed I’d have owned many more guitars by now, and played and messed with hundreds instead of a dozen or so. Lefties always gripe about the limited selection but what is overlooked is the lack of general knowledge about guitars that goes along with it. But no one ever asks to borrow them so there’s that.
When Antonio Rey saw my Devoe he reached out in delight wanting to try it. When he saw how it was stringed the disappointment on his face was instant.
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ORIGINAL: Ricardo
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I'm left handed so I'm unable to play the guitar you built.